


Echoes of Charlie

by Castiron



Category: Louisa May Alcott - Eight Cousins series
Genre: Gen, Yuletide, challenge:Yuletide 2006, recipient:rilla
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-12-25
Updated: 2006-12-25
Packaged: 2017-10-03 03:50:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Castiron/pseuds/Castiron
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rose watches another Charlie grow up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Echoes of Charlie

**Author's Note:**

> Written for rilla in the Yuletide 2006 Challenge.

## Echoes of Charlie

_1888_

Some nights -- not very often, no more than once or twice a year -- Rose wakes in the dark and looks at the man sleeping by her, and for a moment she thinks that the blond hair illuminated by the moon is Charlie's, not Mac's.

She tells Mac almost everything -- her joys and sorrows, her worries and flaws. She does not tell him this. It is her burden, and hers alone.

* * *

_1895_

With every child she carries, Rose thinks about whether this one should be named for Charlie. Looking up from her sewing and watching Mac teach little Dulce, comparing symptoms with Phebe, resting a moment from her housework or her bookkeeping, Rose smooths her skirts over a miraculous life and imagines a tall blond son, the Prince for another generation of Campbells.

But the twins are both girls, as is the child born when Peace and Plenty are four. By the time Rose finally gives birth to a son, Archie and Phebe have already named their second son Charles. So when Rose sets the baby in Uncle Alec's arms for the first time, she says, "Alexander George Campbell. After both of my fathers."

* * *

_1903_

When she sees the boys racing down the hill, Rose can imagine for a moment that she is a child again again, meeting her cousins for the first time.

Never mind that the twins are now Andrew and Mac rather than Geordie and Will, or that Jamie is now the eldest rather than the youngest, or that several blond girls meet them at the bottom of the hill. There are still seven Campbell boys, and the second is still the Bonny Prince Charlie.

She has the pans of gingerbread ready when the crowd bursts in, seventeen laughing children with hearty appetites. Rose smiles at their antics, and hides her laughter when she sees Alex trying to match Charlie's stride, anxious to show that he is a big boy who should no longer be classed with Stephen and Billy. And she applauds along with the girls when Charlie jumps up on the footstool and recites Shakespeare's St. Crispin's Day speech. She remembers cousin Charlie reciting that same speech, but this Charlie, even at eleven, brings a fire to the words that his predecessor never quite carried.

"Your son is becoming an actor," she jokes to Phoebe when the latter arrives to retrieve her four children.

Phebe chuckles, but her face is serious. "I am glad that his voice is becoming so well trained, but I hope he will turn his speaking skills to the courtroom or the pulpit rather than the stage."

Rose embraces her friend. "I have no doubt that he will."

* * *

_1906_

Charlie looks defiantly at Rose. "I don't care what she thinks of me."

He has come to Rose in disgrace, after teasing his sister Mary in front of her school friends and reading aloud a letter Mary had received from one of the boys in her class. Rose says calmly, "It was an unkind deed."

"She shouldn't be letting boys spoon over her anyway. She's only sixteen."

Rose privately shares the surprise that Mary has allowed a boy to write to her, but she says, "Had you said that to her privately and with concern, she might have listened to you. But to shame her in front of her friends, for your own amusement -- that is not the act of a loving brother."

He hangs his head, a boy still despite his fourteen years. "I don't know what to say to her."

Rose shakes her head. "You, without words? You might begin by apologizing and begging her pardon."

After a moment, he looks up at her, a new maturity in his eyes that takes Rose by surprise. "I will."

Rose tells Mac about the conversation that night, and a few days later learns that Mac wrote Charlie a poem to recite for Mary. The oration is a success, and brother and sister are again in accord.

* * *

_1910_

Peace's wedding is a delightful celebration. Not fashionable at all; while Rose and Mac could afford a grand occasion, they are privately pleased when Peace tells them she wants only a simple ceremony, and a private party for the family and friends afterwards.

Rose has known much happiness in her life, but the particular happiness of seeing her daughter wed a good man overflows her heart. She is the first to embrace her new son and to wish Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Sydney a long and happy life together. She smiles proudly as Alexander and Phee parade their new brother-in-law about the room, as Plenty and Jane pour the tea. And she enjoys the many speeches by the family, both the old and the new, but everyone agrees afterwards that Charlie's speech was the finest and the most moving.

So when she steps into the kitchen a half-hour later to ask the cook about the tea breads, and finds Alexander and Charlie in the cupboard with glasses of the medicinal wine, she is as surprised as they are when she strikes the glass out of Charlie's hand.

"Shame on you!" she cries. "On this day of all days! Go back out to the guests, and never let me find you doing this again!"

And it is only after the boys, shaken and startled, hastily return to the party that she realizes she was shouting at Charlie -- her cousin Charlie, over twenty years dead.

Later that evening she takes Charlie aside and apologizes for her outburst. "I fear for you, but I have no right to shout so, not even at Alexander who is my son and certainly not at you."

Though he has towered over her for the past two years, he still seems to look up at her. "I'm sorry too, Aunt Rose. I'll try to do better."

"I hope you will."

She learns a week later, when Archie says to her, "Thank you for scaring some sense into my boy," that Charlie confessed all to his father.

"I was too harsh," Rose says.

Archie disagrees. "You made him think." He looks away. "And I told him more about cousin Charlie. Sometimes...it's a silly pagan idea, but sometimes I feel like my boy is Charlie's second chance to do right."

Rose squeezes his hand, and they sit on the porch in silence, until Mac returns from his rounds and Phebe from errands with the younger girls.

* * *

_1915_

Rose and Mac spend the evening with Archie and Phebe, quietly discussing the horrible news that comes daily from Europe. Geordie's son Billy has told him that he wants to go to Canada and enlist; Rose suspects that Alex wants to do the same, but she hides her fear under a cheerful tone. Eventually the talk turns to their grandchildren, Peace's little girl and Mary's son. Rose laughs to see Archie taking grandfatherly airs; Mac only chuckles and tells Phebe that both the women look too young to be grandmothers.

After Archie and Phebe depart, Mac goes immediately to bed; he was awake all last night with a sick patient, and he is beginning to feel the age that he jokes about. Rose helps Dulce turn down the lamps and make all snug for the night.

She is nearly ready to go upstairs when a key turns in the lock, and Charlie comes in. "Aunt Rose? May I speak to you for a moment?"

He is tall, even taller than his namesake, his hair darker. And he is the age his namesake was when he died.

Rose shakes off the thought. "Of course. Come into the parlor."

Charlie lights a candle for her rather than turning on the gas lamp, then sits facing her. "Do you remember that play I was in last Christmas?"

"How could I forget it? You were splendid as the young prince."

"The man who produced it wrote and asked me if I would be willing to act in a professional performance. Only a very small part, but the play is good and worthy one, and if I do well it may lead to better parts later."

It is not what she has feared, and she does not let the relief sweep away her judgement. "You are on your way to becoming a fine lawyer. Are you sure you want to set this aside for the stage?"

Charlie's voice has a resolution that his predecessor's never had when talking about careers. "I am. At least, I want to try. If I find in a year or two that I'm not good enough, I can start over again in the law. But I must try. Will you forgive me?"

It takes Rose a moment to find her voice. "There is nothing to forgive, Charlie."

A smile brushes his face. "I hope I will never give you cause."

* * *

_1920_

Rose smooths the black dress over her lap. The traditional mourning period of two years is almost over, but she does not think she will ever recover from the telegram telling of Alexander's death, far away in France. Neither will Mac; he has thrown himself even further into his doctoring and his poetry, and some nights they still weep in each other's arms.

Another telegram is on the desk today. She reads the lines over and over.

"Healthy boy. Name Alexander. Sally tired but well. Love Charlie."

She smiles, though tears fill her eyes. She will show the telegram to Mac, and then place it in the box with the theatrical programs Charlie sends her, his name more prominent every time.

Tonight she will dream of all her boys.

END

**Author's Note:**

> rilla had requested a story with Rose remembering Charlie, but with a bit of an edge. As I was figuring out timelines, I realized that if one assumes Rose in Bloom is set roughly in the year it was published, it was highly plausible that Rose et al. would be alive during WWI. (In retrospect, her username was probably what pushed my subconscious in that direction; I'd read Rilla of Ingleside not that long before.)
> 
> Yes, Mr. Thomas Sydney is the son of two characters from An Old-Fashioned Girl.


End file.
